Controversial Fox TV host Tucker Carlson has proposed a bizarre conspiracy theory that seeks to link airline delays in the United States and Canada to the rise in the price of Bitcoin.
He suggested that the computer outage that caused thousands of flights on January 11 could have been caused by the ransomware, and theorized that the US government may have purchased a large amount of bitcoin to pay the ransom.
However, he did not provide any evidence for his claims.
speaking at your presentation Tucker Carlson tonight On Fox News on January 17, Carlson argue This Bitcoin (BTC) price is up over 20% after the travel chaos:
“Almost all ransoms like this are paid in bitcoin. So if the US government was buying large amounts of bitcoin to pay the ransom, then of course bitcoin prices would go up. So the question is did it happen? Well, yeah, it did.”
“Since the national halt last Thursday, the price of bitcoin is up about 20%. Is this a coincidence?” he added.
While Tucker’s online fan base seems to think the theory plausible, it has not been well received by the crypto community. FactoryDAO founder Nick Almond called Tucker’s wild theory “the ultimate tin tin” to his 13,500 Twitter followers:
Maximum Aluminum Foil https://t.co/sUYHV0nQOE
– drnick️² (@DrNickA) January 17, 2023
almonds answered To proponents of the theory who seriously doubted that the US government would buy billions in bitcoin on the open market to pay the ransom.
Blockstream and cypherpunk CEO Adam Back also poked fun at Carlson to his 506,000 followers on Twitter, pointing out that the two events are exactly what Carlson described – a coincidence:
“Is this a coincidence?” Yes, it is a coincidence. Laughs.
– Adam Pack (@adam3us) January 17, 2023
Other arguments against the theory on Crypto Twitter include that the US government already has a large amount of confiscated Bitcoin, that the government would buy it over the counter if it bought it, that Bitcoin is traceable and transparent, and large refunds are likely to be paid in Monero.
Stack Hodler pointed out to his 30k followers that FTX’s recovery of $5 billion in assets was a more likely explanation for the recovery in the cryptocurrency markets:
Morning of January 11: All US flights are suspended due to a “serious technological disruption”.
Late Jan. 11: FTX says it has recovered more than $5 billion in cash
Tucker Carlson: Did the US government buy Bitcoin for ransom?
Can you imagine… https://t.co/Bng9VfxHHU pic.twitter.com/VzwbSdt3s9
– Stack Hodler (stack hodler) January 17, 2023
More than 1,300 flights have been cancelled, with another 10,000 delayed in the first two days of the disruption.
The US Federal Aviation Administration stated on January 11 that the outage was caused by a “corrupted database file” in its Air Mission System notice, which the agency said was not compromised by a cyberattack.
The problem has been corrected and flights have resumed normal operation.
See more: